the presidential race has been won by governor ronald reagan of california. >> george herbert walker bush, 41st president of the united states. >> governor clinton is now president clinton. >> here it is, george w. bush re-elected. >> barack obama, president-elect of the united states. >> announcer: this is cnn. this is it. a crucial moment for the presidential candidates and for the american people. >> we are counting down to the first results on this election night in america. >> it's the tense finale of a long and heated presidential race. >> refusing to answer questions about the details of your policy isn't change. >> attacking me doesn't make an agenda. it doesn't get people back to work. >> voters are choosing and america is waiting for the first results and for the last word on who wins the white house. >> the next president of the united states, mitt romney! >> our president, barack obama! >> tonight, barack obama and

mitt romney battle for the highest offices in land, knowing a handful of swing states will be the ultimate deciders. >> ohio, you're going to make it happen! >> that's what's at stake, new hampshire! >> colorado is at the cusp of the battleground states. >> together we can win florida! >> a contest that's been close for months, in a nation divided between red and blue. we don't know who will win -- >> we need to make sure that we win this one. it counts. >> or how soon the outcome will be clear. >> are you fired up?! >> fired up! >> are you ready to go! w, cnn's coverage of election night in america, the fight for the presidency, the battle for congress, and the issues dividing the nation. >> do you want more of the same or do you want change? >> change! >> i'm not ready to give up on the fight! >> the polls are open, the nation is watching, and history is in the making, right now.

it's all in the hands of the voters right now. you're looking at a live picture of a polling place in nashua, new hampshire, one of the critical battleground states. we're watching as we get closer and closer to the first election results. we'd like to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. about an hour from now, we may be able to make the first projections in the presidential race, and we'll get our first clues about how tonight may go for president barack obama and former governor, mitt romney. we're counting down to the top of the hour, when all the polls will close in the states of georgia, indiana, kentucky, south carolina, vermont, and the battleground state of virginia. some polls in india and kentucky, by the way, they are

closing right now. a total of 60 electoral votes are on the line in those states. 270, you'll be hearing that number a lot. 270 are needed to win the white house. we're getting an early snapshot of voters, what they care about from our exit polls. let's bring in john king over at the magic wall. john? >> and wolf, the demographics of the electorate, what the electorate looks like, who's voting, tells you a lot about what you're going to do today. let's look nationally at who's voting. voters age 18 to 29 make up 18% of the national electorate. that is exactly the same percentage as 2008. the young vote a key part of the obama constituency. that is the same percentage as 2008. voters age 30 to 44 at 26%, that's down a little bit, from 2008. this is a big group of voters, 37% of those voting today, the largest group out there, are in the age group from 45 to 64. that is very consistent, very consistent with four years ago in the size of the electorate. and voters 65 and older, governor romney counting, republicans tend to get higher support among the elderly, this

is up some. it was 16% some years ago. more voters age 65 and older in the electorate today. governor romney will be encouraged by that number, the president will be encouraged by this number, young voters coming out. there was a fear they would drop out in a significant percentage. how about by race? this is almost identical to the 2008 electorate, nationally. again, key battleground states could be a little different. 73% of the voters today are right, it was 74% four years ago. african-americans, 13% of the electorate, that's identical. latinos were 9% of the electorate, four years ago. 10%. if that numbers holds up throughout the later waves of exit polls, it will be the first election in american history where latinos s vote in double digits. 10% right there. this is not how they voted. this is how they identify themselves. 37% of those voting tonight say they're democrats, 34% say they're republicans, and 29% say independents. so roughly, a bit of variation, but roughly you see an evenly divided america. that independent number, a bit on the rise. >> john, thank you. we're getting the first real

numbers coming in right now from the state of kentucky. let's show our viewers what we have, only 1% of the vote is in. and you see mitt romney way ahead of barack obama, 79% to 19%, but it's very, very early in kentucky. that usually in a presidential contest, a pretty reliable red state. we'll continue to watch the numbers. a lot more numbers are going to start coming in this hour. anderson? >> yeah, wolf. cnn has the most reporters in the battleground states that will decide the presidential election. many of them are embedded with election officials to monitor vote tallies and be on alert for any problems. we also have correspondents at both candidates' headquarters. jessica yellin in chicago with the obama campaign skpaand cand crowley in boston with the romney campaign. first we start with jessica. jessica? >> reporter: hi, anderson. well, obama campaign officials so far say they like what they're seeing. they're seeing absolutely no surprises the in the data, and they were expecting turnout to be good for them, so they are happy. what they see so far is no surge for governor romney, they say, and they see that both florida

and north carolina are dead heats. that's what they tell us, of course, you have to factor in pro-obama spin, that's coming from obama aides, but dead heats in florida and north carolina, positive for the president, because going in, those states saw polling, advantage governor romney. now, just before i spoke to you, i interviewed one of the president's top campaign aides, stephanie cutter, and i asked her the president's mood today. this is what she had to say. >> he'ser serene, he's calm, h excited. we had an amazing rally last night, in des moines. very emotional. this is his last campaign, that was his last campaign event. he's looking forward to tonight. he did his traditional game of basketball, and now he's spending time with his family. michelle's brother is here. the president's sister is here, and their family. so there will be lots of nieces and nephews running around. he's going to have dinner with his family. and then as the returns start to come in, he'll come downtown and we'll watch the returns

together. and then we will come here and have a big celebration. >> reporter: and anderson, he won that basketball game today, so i'm sure they consider that a gad sign, a good omen. i told you last night, they are a superstitious bunch, and the president, he likes to win. anderson? >> jessica, he was also making calls and thanking campaign workers at a stop today. >> yes, he did. he visits one of his campaign offices and he thanked people. he also thanked governor romney for a vigorous campaign and acknowledged that there has been a lot of enthusiasm on both sides. and he encouraged people to get out and vote. anderson? >> let's check in with candy crowley at the romney headquarters in boston. candy? >> reporter: hey, anderson. they are striking up the band. i don't want to rain on stephanie's parade, but they're also expecting a victory here tonight. if there is any kind of worry behind the scenes, there is certainly no sign, no crack when

you talk to senior advisers, either on background or on the record, they particularly say they think florida looks great for them. they believe that ohio and virginia look good. so they are, like, you know, most of us. still waiting to see when those polls come in. but th d have folks out in those counties, in ohio, in florida, in virginia, where they need to turn out big numbers. and two of the three advisers i spoke with today about this specific thing, both said that they are seeing high numbers coming out, in the counties, where they really need to do well. so they're expecting about, maybe 5,000 people here tonight, but not until much later. two of them, mitt romney and his wife, ann, are expected to come here at the hotel and stay and await the election results and come over here for what they hope will be a victory party. >> it's going to be a long night. candy, appreciate. romney headquarters. also, john king, you've all been

looking at the early exit polls, the numbers. john, what jumps out at you? >> i think if you look at the demographics of the electorate, there are some things we've seen in the exit polls that we can't talk about until all the polls close. but a lot of conversation last night, democrats were worried the youth vote would go down, seems pretty stable. we'll go state by state, that's what matters most. that's an encouraging number for the obama campaign. the fact that the senior vote is a little bigger this time, if republicans can hold it. that has been a constituency that trends their way. it's also very important in some of the key battleground states. iowa is an older state, florida is an older state. so if you look at first wave of data we have, it tells you that we have a very competitive election on our hands. >> yeah. which we knew before we looked at the data. >> exactly. >> it looks very competitive. it looks like a long night, really. we'll have to wait and see. and wait and see how reliable these are. famously, in 2004, it looked like john kerry had won it. and he ordered up a victory speech, and the later exits came in and it changed dramatically and he lost. so we have to wait and see. i was also struck by the

conversations we've had in the past about the white versus minority percentage of vote, and it was very, very important for governor romney to get at least 74% of the electorate white, maybe a little higher. it looks like a little under that right now. >> we have, clearly a divided electorate. identity politics is alive and well in this country. i think it's very clear that mitt romney was right to run on the economy. everybody cares about the economy. but, you know, it's a question of which matters to most voters. some of them talk about the vision of the candidate matters. others say it matters that he shares my values, or that he understands my problems. that's always an area that mitt romney has had problems with. so as we look at these going down the road, i think we're going to see that the differencdifferenc differences in their number one issues are going to matter. >> our short-term concern tonight is who will be the next president of the united states and what will the balance of

power in congress be, and that's what we'll focus on. but as we do, there's a lesson for the republican party here. and as you watch latinos now become 10%. in the next presidential election, they'll likely be 12 or 13 or 14%. and they're in the key swing states, where their population is growing the fastest. the republican party either deals with its crisis with latino voters, or it's hard to continue to be a national party. the polls going into the election had romney below 30. florida would be more competitive, virginia would be his, and probably other states as well. >> does that speak to some sort of immigration reform, no matter which candidate -- >> tone and policy. there are a lot of conservative latino who is agree with governor romney or agree with republicans, that you don't want people to leave -- but it's the tone. >> the president himself said in his "des moines register" interview, which is off the record, he said, we've got to do immigration. >> let's check in wolf. >> we've got more results coming in. these are real numbers, not exit poll numbers. in kentucky, 1% of the voter is in, overwhelmingly, so far, very

early, 69% for mitt romney, 29% for the president. in indiana, similarly, only 1% of the vote is in, but you can see, mitt romney, 59%, president obama, 39%. very, very early in the process. we'll continue to check, real numbers coming in. we're also getting more early exit poll information. stand by for that. and we've been seeing norm lines for voting in florida. we'll have the latest on whether that could delay results in one of the most important swing states. our battleground reporters, they're out in full force. they are across the country, right now. [ ross ] the streets of monaco,

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you're looking at nathaniel hall in boston. that's where -- mitt romney's in boston right now with his entire family, but this is a watch party underway right now. they're getting ready to see what's going on in boston. we have watch parties that are

going on all over the country, indeed, all over the world. we'll get more official results coming in soon in the cnn election center, but right now, let's get some additional early clues about what voters are thinking as they exited the polling stations across the country. john king is back at the magic wall. we're getting some more clues right now. >> we are. let's focus on two of our key battleground states and two of the key states we'll learn early from. virginia and ohio. eastern time zone, they will close early. who would better handle the economy? here's your definition, folks, of a competitive lx. who would better handle the economy? governor romney, 49. president obama, 48. these are among voters in the key battleground state of ohio today. a split on who would better handle the top issue in the election. are u.s. economic conditions getting better, getting worse, or about the same? 37% say getting better. that's an encouraging number for the president. that number has grown in our preelection polls and in the exit poll, 37% of ohio voters say things are getting better. but a close second, 33% say it's getting worse. you would assume those voters

are thinking, time we need a new president. and about 29% say, things are staying about the same. that's more from battleground ohio. one more here, what's your opinion of the obama administration? after all, they're deciding whether to keep an incumbent president? 27% of ohioans, the largest group say they're dissatisfied, 23% angry. that's half of the electorate today in ohio say they're dissatisfied or angry with the obama administration. but 24% say satisfied and 24% say enthusiastic. that tells you you've got a competitive race in battleground ohio. virginia results will start to come in about the same time. 53% say governor romney would better handle the economy, 45%, president obama. a better edge for governor romney in battleground virginia. we're weighing t iawaiting the e to come up soon. u.s. economic conditions, 43% say getting better, 36% say getting worse. two voters iy sa are!jthe sam pe one

largest group, 32%, are enthusiastic about the obama administration. 18%sati that's 48/50. add up this, that's 48. roughly an even divide in battleground virginia, just the same as battleground ohio. when the voters are evenly divided, guess what, it means we've got a count. we're going to be here a while. >> we are, indeed. but that's why they pay us, to be here all night, if necessary, and beyond. anderson? >> wolf, thanks. we're counting down to the top of the hour and one of the first results of the crucial battleground states, virginia. let's check in with some of our reporters embedded in some of the toss-up states. fi gch andn, we at elonthe ua hers in h enrico county, rgin.lo ls and t tithey' activates it, touch here to people like touc h scre start. this is a sample machine, becau for president, washington,

jefferson, lincoln. i voter for washington, vote for lincoln -- you can't do two. then favorite university, i'll put william and mary, should the college football national championship be decid by a playoff? yes. push next. those are my votes. push next one more e, r pa mark there, my ballot is being cast. please wait. then the precinct captain comes out, puts their card in there, the tape comes out, these are the votes for obama and romney, they write it down, call this office, and in about 41 minutes, we should start knowing the raw numbers in this critical county. >> let's check in with erin burnett, in columbus, ohio. erin? >> reporter: anderson, we're here at the capitol of ohio, and this could be ground zero in terms of who wins tonight. the story here is absentee and early voting. it turns out that it would be reasonable, election officials

tell me to say 200,000 of those votes, we don't know who they voted for tonight. those people who come in and their address changed or their name changed, they had to file one of these, a yellow ballot, a provisional ballot. that's the nightmare scenario. if we don't know, if it comes down to these yellow ballots, we may not know for another ten days who wins this election. the good news, anderson is, i spoke to the secretary of state from ohio today, and he told me firmly the same thing he told me last night. he said, i don't think it's going to come early tonight, but i do think, here in ohio, we will be able to project a winner, and i've been talking to a few election officials e, they're saying, hopefully, they think, psibly, around midnight tonight. so we will see. but it could all come down to where we are tonight here in columbus, anderson. >> erin, thanks for that. we'll check in later. let's go to john zarrella in florida. john? >> reporter: anderson, record turnout possible in florida. up to 9 million votes might be cast when all is said and done.

4.5 million already cast, absentee balloting and early voting. long lines the to report today and a lot of places, hialeah florida, down in miami-dade county, one area, the lines were long, hours' long lines there, all day long. but it's not acrosse board. some places, precincts you went to, the lines were 10, 15, 20 minutes, and that was it. we're at the tabulation center in palm beach county. what i want to show you, what these people behind me are doing right now, counting absentee ballots. what they are doing is transposing faulty ballots that went out. and let me show you what we had. right here, anderson, 35,000 of these went out that were wrong. the jigs of the supreme court header here was left off. so when they came back in, the machines couldn't scan. so what these people are doing, and there are republican and democratic monitors behind each of these volunteer workers, they're taking the faulty ballots and transposing them on to correct ballots, and then, they will be put into the

machine. so far, they've corrected 23,000 ballots. they do not expect to have all the rest of them in those boxes back there done before the end of the night. it's going to be a long time before all of them, the absentee ballots, are counted here in palm beach county. anderson? >> we're watching any irregularities in voting in a lot of the different battleground states. john zarrella, appreciate that. let's go back to wolf. >> we're fighting the battle for control in the united states senate, in a brand-new way, in the virtual senate. tom zarrella is there. >> reporter: whoever wins the presidency, his ability to get the job done and do what he wants is going to depend on what happens in the u.s. senate tonight. these races are critical. let me take you up high in our virtual senate and show you where we stand right now. the republicans very much want to expand on the 47 red seats they have here. they would love to eat into those three blue seats in the backseat, because that's democratic advantage. the democrats have 53 seats

here, including the two independents who caucus with them. we made their desks purple. the democrats have the white house with president obama, and the one republican stronghold is the u.s. house of representatives, which is not likely to change. so if nothing else changes, what will we see in terms of a difference in the u.s. senate, if president obama is re-elected? well, we might see a lot of the same arguments as before, but a new agenda. way up on the list, higher taxes upon the wealthy. the president has said this is part of making the economy more fair, getting the economy moving again, and dealing with the deficit. here's another item he's been talking about. immigration reform. he talked about this last time. and he took a lot of criticism for not getting the job done. but he says if he gets re-elected, he'll take another crack at it. and here's the wild card back here, he could have a supreme court seat to fill. justice ginsberg has suggested she might want to retire. she's a liberal leaning justice. if she goes away, he would probably put a liberal leaning justice in her seat.

that would maintain the as few as quo on the court. basically, things wouldn't change. but imagine this isn't what happens. imagine that everything stays the same, but mitt romney takes control. what agenda is he going to bring to the u.s. senate? well, first of all, lower taxes. he wants a 20% tax cut for everybody. he also wants to close some loopholes in the tax code. that's his way of getting the economy moving and dealing with the deficit. he also wants to repeal obama care. you heard this over and over again, out on the stump. it's not really clear if he can get it done, but he would certainly need the senate's help to do much on it. he says he's going to keep the most popular parts of it, by the way, and he, too, could face a supreme court seat. big difference, though. if it's a seat held by a liberal, he would no doubt put a more conservative justice into that seat, and that would change the status quo of the court. it would change the balance. and you would probably see, wolf, some changes in the types of rulings we saw coming out in the court. wolf? >> tom, as you say, we think the

republicans will hold on to their majority in the house of representatives, but what about the balance of power in the senate? >> yeah, well, the numbers have sort of suggested that the democrats have a fair chance of holding on to their advantage here, but you never really know, because so much is up in the air right now. the republicans would love to at least pick off those three seats back there. if they did that, you would have a tie here on many votes, that tie would have to be broken by the vice president, either joe biden or paul ryan, depending on who wins. and if the republicans really did well tonight, they might be able to pick up a seat or two over here and have a majority. but wolf, here is the thing that we cannot impress enough as you watch the returns tonight on the senate, the simple true is, there is no indication that either party could get a 60-vote super majority here. that's what you need to overcome a filibuster and if you don't have that, no matter who becomes the president, he's going to have a hard time pushing his agenda, unless he can find way to get people working together

across this aisle, and that has allude e eluded them for quite some time. >> thank you very much, tom. tom's in our virtual senate. we're counting down to the top of the hour when polls close in our battleground state of virginia. it's the first important sign of how this night may go. and the first official results. early vote tallies are coming in for a parts of indiana and kentucky right now, where the polls have already closed. and wait until you see how cnn is changing one of the world's most famous landmarks. the empire state building, on this election night in america. if we want to improve our schools... ... what should we invest in? maybe new buildings?

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they're voting in the key battleground state of new hampshire. these are live pictures coming in from nashua, new hampshire. we're watching voting there all across the country. we're also beginning to get real election results coming in from two states, kentucky and indiana. kentucky right now, still very, very early. 1% of the vote is in. you see a lopsided leap for mitt romney, 69% to 29% in kentucky so far. similarly in indiana, 2% of the vote is now in. another lopsided lead, 65% for mitt romney, 34% for president

obama, but it's very, very early. let's get some more exit poll results. john king has been going through those numbers, and we're going to learn a little bit more about what the voters are thinking. >> we are. let's take a glimpse. nationally, we have two key questions and then we want to go into another battleground state. we showed you a bit from ohio and virginia. that is nationally. who would better handle the economy? you see a very close divide, governor romney, 50, obama, 47. so that suggests we will have a close election. who's more in touch with people like you. throughout the campaign, the empathy question, if you will, has been an advantage for president obama and it is an advantage on election day. 52% of the voters on election day the president is more in touch with people like this them. 44% gave that mark govern rom pipromny. now let's look at the demographic. 67% white, 13% african-american,

and 16 fa% latino. the next is the 2008 florida electorate. what was the electorate like four years ago. 71% of the electorate was white in in florida. a higher number four years ago and it's red because john mccain won the white vote. latino was 14%. it's 16% this year. so, again, in another key battleground state, the latino population, it might be slight, but that's growth. a change in the electorate there. we'll watch out that plays out in battleground florida. another big question, florida, one of the older states in america. who would better handle medicare? a question that seniors care about, a question, also, that voters in that 40 to 55 to 60 age group care about, especially the democrats try to maken issue of the ryan budget, because of the changes in medicare. the president gets a slight edge, wolf, but essentially an even divide on the medicare question in the state of florida. one little ad lib here, if i can. i'll walk over here. stay with me on the magic wall. we're starting to get results in kentucky and indiana, tiny results, 2% of the vote. i want to show you a little

place in indiana. viggo county, 1.7% of the population. i'm going to look here later tonight for trivial purposes. only twice since 1888 has vigo county been wrong in picking a president. why? good question, but since the 1950s, this county has been right. it's filling in blue at the moment. look at that. that's only 17% of the vote. we'll see how it goes tonight, but you watch it blue now, we'll see if vigo county's streak continues. >> could be a bellwether, could be an indication of what's going on. we'll watch all these states, all these counties, all these polling precincts very closely. >> who knew, as vigo county goes, so goes the country. often said. let's check in with your o contributors, alex castellanos, a republican. what are you looking at tonight, what are you seeing in those numbers so far from the exit polls? >> well, that we're going to have a long night, i guess p. >> that's going to be the most overused phrase, by the way, of

tonight. "long night." >> every time someone says that, i'll be happy. it's so hard to tell with these early exits. i still think there's a reticent republican factor. i think we know as republicans that all the cool kids, hollywood, fashion, academia, news media, a lot of people are on the other side. the uncool kids, the kids that wear socks with sandals, we're republicans. >> are you saying kid rock is not cool? >> democrats have more. let's put it that way. and what happens when you get interviewed is, are you for the cool guy or are you for the uncool republican? we underreport. underreport on surveys and et wpolls.y thought he'dthe election when he ran and he didn't. so i'm looking right now to see if these numbers either improve a little bit or if when we start getting the real data, there's a little bit more of a republican bump here. this is a very tight race. but if you had a republican bump, mitt romney's got a real shot at winning this thing. >> james carville? >> we'll have to wait and see

what happens. my point is simply this. the consequences for the losing party are going to be dramatic. if the democrats lose this election, that means they will have lost every election of any consequence since president obama won in '08. if the republicans lose this election, it will be the fifth time in the last sixth elections that they've lost the popular vote to the democrats. it will be enormous. they'll have to rethink their entire party. so my focus is a little bit, as we watch this, what does it mean for the losing party? and it's going to be dramatic. i mean, every election has consequences. the consequences to the losing party in this election seem to me to be pretty doggone profound. and you know, it's a cliche, but like everybody else, we're going to wait and start counting votes here for a second. >> the other question, what's it mean for governorship, no matter who wins, and that's thing we'll talk about tonight as well. margaret hoover, republican strategist? >> what we're all looking at is enthusiasm numbers, in these early numbers. in the exit polling for the millennial number, the 18 to 29-year-old data says 18% of

them turned out. well, the plenty ymillennial ge is the largest generation in history. there are 17 million more of them than baby boomers. if all of them turn out at the same proportion than turned out in 2008, 65 million of them are eligible to vote, 51% turns out, that would make some 24% of the electorate. that would mean if 18% have turned out, there's a depression in enthusiasm in the youth vote. >> i think that's true, but i'm encouraged by that 18% number. if you just look at the number, as it is, 18% is the same percentage that they had before. there's a concern you'll have a collapse of the youth vote, not a contraction, but a collapse. and i think you don't. even if the youth vote for obama at 57%, it's still a huge, huge bump for obama. >> and one thing we also saw in the exits is the battle for medicare is a fair fight, even for republicans and democrats. medicare, picking paul ryan, the

ending medicare as we know it, was supposed to wipe out the republican party. it hasn't. >> we've got to take a break. we're live at landmarks across america, where people are gathering tonight to watch cnn's election coverage. we're in the president's hometown of chicago, thompson center plaza downtown. cnn has provided the largest screen in the city for free election coverage. more than 350,000 l.e.d. lights are illuminating the area. it's a special election preview of the holiday light and sound show called blink. let's head to the las vegas strip, the miracle mile stop, another place where people can stop and watch election results on cnn. and back here in the east coast, check out the scene at times square, cnn's official election watch party. we expect it to be a busy place throughout the evening. wolf? >> and tonight, anderson, get this, you can keep tabs on the changing electoral vote count can in a whole new way, right here on cnn. look at the empire state building in new york. now take a close look at the very top, the mast. it will be following cnn's

official electrical count. so as we make projections, those red columns will rise throughout the night. blue for obama, red for romney. once we have a winner, those red, white, and plu lights on the upper floors will check this out. if president obama wins, the top of the empire state building will light up in bright blue. if governor romney wins, the building's mast will shine bright red. new yorkers, by the way, will be able to look up and see the results throughout the night. the rest of the nation, of course, can see it right here on cnn. there's a heated fight underway right now to win in wisconsin, the home state of paul ryan. the election system there is surprisingly old school and will affect the vote counting. we're going there live. and we're counting down to the top of the hour, when the polls close in six states, including the battleground state of virginia. we're live at obama and romney headquarters. they're waiting for the first results and they're watching it on cnn, on this election night in america.

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we've got some real votes coming in from kentucky and indiana. let's update you on what's happening right now. still very, very early in kentucky, but it's a lopsided lead for mitt romney, 69% to 29%, only 1% of the vote is in. 3% of the vote is in in indiana. 60% for mitt romney, 38% for the president. but it's still very early. the president did carry indiana, as you remember, four years ago. candy crowley is over at a romney headquarters in boston. she's watching what's going on. what's going on over there, candy? you've got some news? >> reporter: hey, wolf. yes. i want to bring in one of our political reporters, peter hamby, who has been out and about, covering actually both of

these campaigns for the last couple of years. peter, what have you found out? >> reporter: we've actually found out, we've got a glimpse into the romney campaign's internal polling, through the last day they did internal tracking. their pollster does daily tracking every day throughout the campaign to kind of figure out strategy. through sunday, the last day that they did tracking, the romney campaign had obama winning ohio by five points. that's, you know, it changes day to day, but that's up from winning ohio by one, losing ohio by one, tied, so you saw a big final jump at the last day for romney, or excuse me, for obama, inside the romney campaign, candy. >> reporter: one of the things this tells us is that public optimism is required on election day, but behind the scenes, it tells us a little bit more about what they're really thinking. >> reporter: exactly. this is a nonauthorized leak, i got this from a good source of mine. they project polls hourly, but there was a reason they went to

pennsylvania and ohio today, at the last minute. it's because they saw the numbers on the last day, they saw obama jumping to a stronger lead than he had had before, according to their numbers, and the numbers also show pennsylvania really tight. we see how polling forms strategy, but the polls in ohio are done pretty soon. >> thanks very much, peter hamby. >> candy, thanks very much and peter, thanks to you as well. let's go back to john king. you're taking a look at the electoral college map, because the popular vote is important, but it's 270 electoral votes that will be needed to elect the next president. >> let's follow up on what peter hamby just told our candy crowley there. he said inside the romney campaign, they're increasingly pessimistic about this. 18 votes in the state of ohio. no republicans ever won without it. let's say that goes blue, that puts the president on the doorstep of being re-elected. could governor romney get to 270 without ohiolle the question we'll ask tonight. well, let's assume, for the sake of argument, democrats, we'll

give him the state of florida. let's assume, again, i know democrats would disagree, let's give him virginia. that puts him in play, but then he comes out here. how does he make up for this? the obama campaign is very confident about this. we'll see if paul ryan can make a difference, but the obama campaign is very confident about this, about wisconsin. the obama campaign is extremely confident because of the latino vote, about nevada. now you're in this position here. can governor romney get there? can he get there without, even if he won colorado, even if he won iowa, and even if he won new hampshire, he's short. what would he have to do? that's the pennsylvania strategy you were just thinking about. he would have to take that away and turn it red. that would make the difference, but it's improbable. the deep blue dna of pennsylvania makes that somewhat improbable. which is why we're going to spend a long time tonight, late campaign polling is not always what happens on election day. i talk to some people in hamilton county, ohio, to cincinnati, they were much more encouraged today than they were last night. if that one is blue at the end of the night, it's not impossible, but it is improbable, i would say, to find

a romney path to 270. >> in the past, as we say often, no republican has won the white house without ohio. anderson? >> i just want to quickly check in with our analyst, about what peter hamby just reported, a source inside. the romney campaign saying that their internal numbers in their last poll showed obama plus 5 in ohio. that's promisurprising. >> it's surprising, because in talking to them every day, that's not what they were saying. they were saying their internal polls -- >> not what they were saying publicly. >> or even on background, saying to reporters, this is a dead heat. which shows you that in campaigns, they're not going to give away the keys, and they were always saying to us, by the way, that their polls were much more accurate than ours, which always showed a disparity, and that theirs were tight. and it may explain why the campaign threw in that jeep ad about exporting -- >> also may explain a trip to pennsylvania. >> exporting jobs to italy. >> i think that it suggests that

it is a -- listen, it seems to me that it may be is breaking for obama the last few days. the exit polls, the early exit polls don't suggest that. so ohio may be a special case, in which case, this whole controversy about the jeep was backfiring a little bit on romney. his allegations out there, which were rebuffed by two of the car companies, as well as by a number of others, you know, were pretty wild. and i think it was, you know, obama's doing better among working class people in ohio than he is elsewhere, and this whole thing about the automobile bailout and the jeep ad could make the difference. >> that was a point that rahm emanuel made earlier today on our program, about the impact that the auto bailout has had in ohio. >> absolutely. >> and you look at the unemployment numbers in some of these states like ohio, they're lower than the national average. voters there may be more optimistic, as the exit polls show, about the future of the economy. and on the economy issue, i don't think that romney is doing as well as he needs to be doing, overall. it's his key issue. he was way ahead on it.

the exit polls show just a few points of difference. >> it's fascinating, what peter hamby just reported. we'll continue to follow it. obviously, we are minutes away from the first wave of poll closings. battleground state of virginia is on the line. we're at election watch parties in the president's hometown of chicago, as well, and mitt romney's hometown of boston. they're obviously anxious the to see if they can make our first battleground state projection ahead, stay tuned. [ woman ] it's 32 minutes to go time, and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there.

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>> barack obama, president-elect of the united states. >> this is cnn. we're closing in on the first results in the battle for the white house. >> we can only guess how late the night will go. it's going to be an exciting night, and how close it will be. ♪ across the land, this is the moment when americans choose their leader and chart their future. >> a bigger, better country. that is what's in store with new leadership. >> you know i'll fight for you and your families. >> this is the moment when a long, bitter campaign end -- >> you don't scare hard-working americans just to scare up some votes. that's not what being president is all about. >> and a long, spenceful night begins. >> do you want four more years with 23 million americans looking for a good job? >> this is the moment when everybody is on the line and anything can happen. >> romney, romney, romney! >> four more years, four more years! >> tonight, the results the world has been waiting for.

barack obama and mitt romney, vying for every vote and every battleground that will decide the election. >> we'll win ohio. >> america is counting on florida. >> right here in iowa. >> we're going to win wisconsin. >> a presidential contest that's been neck and neck for months, maybe razor close in the final hour. who will be the winner tonight? or could there be a cliffhanger? >> this is the time to elect a leader. >> i would like to win this thing earlier than later. so -- >> now, cnn's coverage of "election night in america." the fight for the presidency, the battle for congress and the issues dividing the nation. >> you are not ready to give up on the fight. >> do you want more of the same or do you want change? >> the first holes are closing, the nation is watching. and history is in the making. right now.

we're live at the presidential candidates' campaign headquarters. the obama camp in chicago. the romney camp in boston. both campaigns are anxiously waiting for the final word from voters on this, "election night in network." we would like to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. we're counting down to the first projections in the race for the white house and control of the united states congress. just minutes from now, all polls closed. in georgia, indiana, kentucky, south carolina, vermont and the battleground state of virginia. a total of 60 electoral votes are up for grabs in those states, and remember, it takes 270 electoral votes to win this election. let's go to our correspondents over at the presidential candidates' headquarters, jessica yellin is with the president in chicago, candy crowley with governor romney in

boston. jessica, first to you. set the scene. >> reporter: hi, wolf. i have been speaking to obama aides throughout the day, and they tell me that they are feeling calm, as is the president. they describe him as calm, serene and excited. they say that they feel that this is not only going to be a good night for them, but also an early night. they tell me that they do not trust exit polls. you know, wolf, they don't even trust media reports. what they do trust is their operation and the models they built. and they say nothing they have seen in the data so far is diverging from their models. they are seeing to quote them, no surprises. but you know, election nights have seen surprises before, and this night is still early. >> only just beginning. candy, what's it like in boston? >> reporter: well, they've just opened the doors here, so people are starting to trickle in. but they are expecting actually a long night here, just in keeping with the parallel universes we see between these two campaigns. so there is plenty of time to go out for dinner, et cetera,

before they come here to what they hope will be a victory rally. we know that mitt romney is now back in boston after going to ohio and pennsylvania today. he will wait out these -- evening results here in a hotel very close to the boston convention center. again, lots of public and even on background optimism from campaign aides. but as we know from what our pet peter hamby just reported, sunday, two days ago, the internal campaign polling for the romney campaign showed mitt romney down five points in ohio. that is critical, certainly tells you why they paid so much attention to ohio early on, wolf. >> certainly is, candy. thanks very much. anderson cooper, of course, joins us for this historic night. >> yeah, wolf, it certainly is. moments away from the first results in virginia, traditionally red state that turned blue when it went for president obama four years ago. we have two components on the ground, kate bolduan in manass s

manassas. let's start with kate bolduan. kate? >> reporter: hey, anderson. polls minutes away from closing in prince william county, virginia. and when that happens, that is when the phones are going to start ringing here at the board of elections headquarters. this is one of the locations where they'll be taking in the calls with results. first writing in the results here and then later physically having the results brought in these bags. the results, though, we're hearing could be delayed even by hours because of the hours-long wait at some polling stations in the precinct. why does this matter? because everyone is watching what happens here in prince william county, as well as what happens in louden county, just to our north. people are watching as a key indicator of how this state and its 13 electoral votes will go. anderson? >> gary tuckman. gary? >> reporter: anderson, in reicho county, virginia, just north of richmond is a battleground county and battleground state. barack obama is expected to do well in the washington suburbs. mitt romney is expected to do well in the rural areas of the

state. both need this county and the raw numbers should be coming in any minute. real numbers, anderson. >> well, our election team is in the field. also, obviously here in the studio, let's go to john king at the magic wall. john? >> early up, the key battleground. we talked about ohio but if governor romney doesn't win virginia hard to see him getting to 270. what are the voters in virginia thinking tonight? 62% say the economy is the number one issue in the country. 13% say the deficit. 17% say health care. so pocketbook issues driving the electorate in virginia today. let's take a look at this. should the health care law be repealed? that's been a big question in the campaign. governor romney says yes. 49% of the virginia voters today agree with the governor. but 46% say no. that tells you a very evenly divided virginia electorate on one of the big poms questions in this presidential campaign. vote by party identification. 39% of those voting today in virginia are democrats. 33% are republicans. and 28% are independents. a lot of southern democrats sometimes vote republican for president. so you can look at this number

and say the candidate who wins the independents is likely to carry the day in the state of virginia. let's look more here. are you a white born-again christian. virginia one of the states where evangelical turnout is critical. and mitt romney, 21% of the electorate in the commonwealth of virginia tonight says, yes, i'm a white, evangelical christian. that's down from 28% four years ago. that could be an interesting question tonight wears on. 79% say no. so evangelical turnout is down. you want to see an evenly divided electorate, what do they think of the president, 49% say unfavorable. mitt romney 50% say unfavorable, 48% say favorable. so this is an evenly divided electorate in the state of virginia, wolf. we're watching they